[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

TRIBUTE TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY

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HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

of new york

in the house of representatives

Thursday, June 14, 2001

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to share with you
and my colleagues here in the House, an article which appeared in the
June 11, 2001 edition of The Washington Times about Frederick Douglass
Academy which is located in my 15th Congressional District in central
Harlem.
As a graduate of Frederick Douglass Academy, I am most proud of the
hard work and commitment of their principal, Gregory Hodge and the
teachers who go beyond the call of duty to see that each child leaves
there with a good education.
Just recently, I sponsored two Congressional Pages who are students
at Frederick Douglass, Charzetta Nixon and Leon Harris, and I am proud
to say that they truly represented the best of the Academy and my
Congressional District.
I commend this article to my colleagues knowing that with students
like those at Frederick Douglass Academy, this nation's future is in
good hands.

[From the Washington Times, June 11, 2001]

Low Budget, High Achievers

Staff's commitment drives a school's success in Harlem

(By Nate Hentoff)

Most polls indicate that education leads all other concerns
among Americans. Parents, whatever they themselves have
achieved, or not achieved, want their children to succeed in
school and therefore in life. Many parents become desperately
disappointed. Yet, in 40 years of writing about schools, I've
seen that depression lift as a principal reinvents the wheel
and shows how all children can learn.
A current reinventor of the wheel of learning is Gregory
Hodge, the principal of the Frederick Douglass Academy in
central Harlem, a predominantly black and Hispanic area of
New York City.
I was not surprised when I read a story about his school
earlier this year in the New York Times because I once wrote
a book--``Does Anybody Give a Damn: Nat Hentoff on
Education''--about schools in ``disadvantaged'' neighborhoods
that also expected all of their students to learn. And they
did learn.
Of the 1,100 students at the Frederick Douglass Academy, a
public school, 80 percent are black and 19 percent are
Hispanic. Some come from homes far below the poverty line. In
a few of those homes, one or both parents are drug addicts.
Seventy-two percent of the students are eligible for free
lunch.
The dropout rate is 0.3 percent. If a student doesn't show
up at a tutoring session, his teacher calls his mother,
father or other caregiver. Every student is expected to go to
college. As the New York Times reported, ``In June of last
year, 114 students graduated and 113 attended colleges, some
going to Ivy League or comparable schools.'' The 114th
student was accepted by the Naval Academy.
During the Great Depression, I went to a similar public
school. All of us were expected to go to college. Most of us
were poor. At the Boston Latin School, as at the Frederick
Douglass Academy, there was firm, but not abusive,
discipline. And we had three hours of homework a night. There
were no excuses for not turning in the work. At the Frederick
Douglass Academy, the students have four hours of homework a
night.
The students there take Japanese and Latin in middle school
and can switch to French or Spanish in high school. At Boston
Latin, we had to take Latin and Greek as well as American
history. The kids at Frederick Douglass can take advanced
placement courses not only in American history, but also in
calculus and physics. I flunked beginning physics.
Moreover, the students at Frederick Douglass mentor
elementary-school children at the public school next door.
``The idea,'' Mr. Hodge told the New York Times, ``is to show
students that they have responsibilities to the Harlem
community. And they are expected to be leaders and help
Harlem grow.''
Near Boston Latin Schools, there were elementary school
kids who, without mentoring, didn't have much of a chance to
believe that they could someday go to college. But our Boston
Latin principal didn't send us out to be part of a larger
responsibility.
So how come Frederick Douglass Academy does what a public
school is supposed to do--lift all boats? The principal, who
reads every one of the 1,100 report cards, demands that his
teachers expect each child to learn. The school works, he
says, because it has committed teachers. ``They come in early
and stay late. The teachers go with them to colleges. Some
have gone in their own pockets for supplies . . . Teachers
here will do everything they can to make sure kids are
successful.''
A senior who had been in a high school outside New York
City explained the success of the school--and his own success
there--succinctly: ``They want you to learn here.''
I have been in schools at which principals are seldom seen
because they don't want to take responsibility for problems
that arise. And I know teachers who have enabled kids to
learn in their classrooms, but worry about sending the
students on to teachers who are convinced that children from
mean streets and homes without books can learn only so much.
And I remember a president named Bill Clinton who spent a
lot of time focusing on affirmative action to get minority
kids into college. For the most part, he ignored the students
who never get close to going to college because of
principals, teachers and school boards who do not expect all
kids to learn, and so do not demand that they do.
At a New York City school board meeting years ago, I heard
a black parent accuse the silent officials: ``When you fail,
when everybody fails my child, what happens? Nothing. Nobody
gets fired. Nothing happens to nobody, except my child.''
He was torn between grief and rage. So are many American
parents these days. At the Frederick Douglass Academy,
parents see their children grow in every way. And it is a
public school.

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